Articles

Mirai Botnet Creators Plead Guilty

By Ashley Carman 12/13/2017

Three men, Paras Jha, 21, Josiah White, 20, and Dalton Norman, 21, entered guilty pleas for their roles in creating and deploying the Mirai botnet last year. The men apparently ran their own DDoS mitigation service, meaning they unleashed this massive botnet of zombie devices in an effort to boost their business. They would extort companies for their services after they were already targeted and also leased their botnet out to other attackers. Under their guilty pleas, Jha agreed to give up 13 bitcoin, which is currently worth around $225,000.

Three men, Paras Jha, 21, Josiah White, 20, and Dalton Norman, 21, entered guilty pleas for their roles in creating and deploying the Mirai botnet last year. The men apparently ran their own DDoS mitigation service, meaning they unleashed this massive botnet of zombie devices in an effort to boost their business. They would extort companies for their services after they were already targeted and also leased their botnet out to other attackers. Under their guilty pleas, Jha agreed to give up 13 bitcoin, which is currently worth around $225,000.

A 20-year-old man was responsible for the massive data breach at Uber last year, and the company paid him to destroy the data through its bug bounty program, reports Reuters. In November, Uber revealed it suffered from a cyberattack in October 2016 that exposed the private data of 57 million drivers and customers, which it then covered up. Uber allegedly paid hackers a $100,000 ransom to delete the data and not disclose what had happened to the media and public. The company didn’t say how the hacker was paid, or who he was.

A 20-year-old man was responsible for the massive data breach at Uber last year, and the company paid him to destroy the data through its bug bounty program, reports Reuters. In November, Uber revealed it suffered from a cyberattack in October 2016 that exposed the private data of 57 million drivers and customers, which it then covered up. Uber allegedly paid hackers a $100,000 ransom to delete the data and not disclose what had happened to the media and public. The company didn’t say how the hacker was paid, or who he was.

Apple Fixes HomeKit Bug that Gave Attackers Control Over Smart Home Gadgets

By Jacob Kastrenakes 12/08/2017

Apple’s had a bad couple weeks of software issues, and its latest problem is a HomeKit vulnerability that apparently let hackers take control of a person’s smart home gadgets. 9to5Mac broke news of the exploit and seems to have nudged Apple into patching the bug immediately — Apple was reportedly told of the issue in late October.

Apple’s had a bad couple weeks of software issues, and its latest problem is a HomeKit vulnerability that apparently let hackers take control of a person’s smart home gadgets. 9to5Mac broke news of the exploit and seems to have nudged Apple into patching the bug immediately — Apple was reportedly told of the issue in late October.

Founders of Hacked Crypto-Mining Site Apologize Over Facebook Livestream

By Shannon Liao 12/07/2017

Yesterday, hackers stole $64 million from NiceHash, a company that lets users apply their extra GPUs to mining cryptocurrencies. The attack caused NiceHash to shut down its website for 24 hours, as the site’s payment system was compromised and its bitcoin wallets emptied. Today, CEO Marko Kobal and co-founder Sasa Coh appeared on a Facebook livestream to address user concerns.

Yesterday, hackers stole $64 million from NiceHash, a company that lets users apply their extra GPUs to mining cryptocurrencies. The attack caused NiceHash to shut down its website for 24 hours, as the site’s payment system was compromised and its bitcoin wallets emptied. Today, CEO Marko Kobal and co-founder Sasa Coh appeared on a Facebook livestream to address user concerns.